Revealed: The World's Best Climate in 2009

In the International Living magazine every January, we rate and rank nearly every nation on earth. This year we looked at 194 countries across nine categories, including Climate. (The other categories are Cost of Living, Culture and Leisure, Economy, Environment, Freedom, Health, Infrastructure, and Safety and Risk.)

The country with the world's best climate is an island nation. Framed by an intense blue sea and sitting at the heart of the Mediterranean, these islands glow like liquid honey. They offer a sunny climate year-round with fair weather, averaging 5.2 hours of sunshine a day--even in December. Right into November, daytime temperatures often nudge 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Spring comes early, around late February.

[I can't reveal the name of this country (that wouldn't be fair to IL Magazine Subscribers)…but if you subscribe to the magazine with this link, you'll get instant access to the special Quality of Life January issue.]

If you lived here, you can enjoy not only a Mediterranean climate, but the lifestyle that goes with it--hot, sunkissed, and easy-going…and the romance of long ago. The capital city is “history encased in golden stone.” Rising above the Grand Harbor, it’s laden with the treasures of this country's famous Knights.

There are numerous other reasons why we recommend you look at these historic islands. At one time or another, they were colonized by all the great Mediterranean powers. Architectural styles have been borrowed from everywhere. You’ll see homes with Moorish archways...courtyards with pattering fountains or lemon trees...cavernous mill rooms where farm animals once huddled at night...

You’ll experience no language problems--everybody speaks English. Until 1964, the islands belonged to Britain and old colonial trappings pop up everywhere--a statue of Queen Victoria gazes sternly upon shoppers on the main street in the capital. The phone booths and mail boxes are bright scarlet. Tiny police stations--with scant crime they’re not NYPD-sized--have the same blue lamps that hang outside British police stations.

So if an English-speaking historic island in the Med, with little crime and the best weather in the world tickles your fancy, then these islands may be for you.

If you haven't yet figured out from my clues which country has the best climate in the world, don't worry--the IL Magazine reveals all in the January issue.

Laura Sheridan
Managing Editor, International Living Magazine